1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to spoken dialog systems and more specifically to a method of analyzing website content to generate a spoken dialog service for websites.
2. Introduction
The task of creating customized spoken dialog applications has traditionally been known to be expensive, requiring significant resources and a certain level of expertise. The cost and complexity for developing such applications present an obstacle in porting dialog systems especially those required for customer care and help desk applications.
Spoken dialog systems provide individuals and companies with a cost effective means of communicating with customers. Some examples of successfully deployed spoken dialog systems include AT&T's How May I Help You? (HMIHY) system, UBS Voice and AOL-By-Phone. For example, the AOL-By-Phone service employs automatic speech recognition technology and text-to-speech (TTS) technology to enable users to call and receive email and other information via a spoken dial.
There are several barriers that hinder the portability of such systems to new services. The most significant challenge is the tremendous amount of human knowledge and expertise required to build and maintain them. Developing such applications involves a great deal of effort in task-specific data collection and design of handcrafted rules for the various components of a dialog system. Further, the cost of developing such systems may keep smaller companies from seeking this cost saving service. Large companies may be hesitant to use such a service because of the delay required to develop the system and the ongoing need to maintain it.
It is evident that the World Wide Web now has become the largest sharable and searchable repository of information. Recent estimates predict the size of the indexable web to be more than 4 billion pages. Almost every company currently has its own website. In order to have their customers get online information in a timely, effective and efficient way, companies expend a large amount of resources to organize these sites to be easily manageable. When preparing a website, months-long effort has been invested in analyzing the backend application database, extracting application logics, carefully designing the dynamic interactions in web environment and the screen presentation to make it more attractive and helpful for customers. Textual data on the web pertaining to a product or a service has been created to be in a human readable form. What is needed in the art is a process of building spoken dialog services by leveraging the wealth of information on companies' websites. In this manner, the investment in a detailed and organized website can be leveraged to service customers with a spoken dialog interface either over the phone or through the Internet.